His Unexpected Family (Entangled Indulgence)

by Robyn Thomas

[Cocktails and Books]

Cole Matthews, extreme sport filmmaker, thought he lost is all when his brother and best friend died in an avalanche. He vows he's going to become a better person and put all his millions to work helping make up for his mistake by not being with his brother or Danny when they died. His first order of business is to find a place to live while he searches for Danny's widow. Unknowingly, his realtor has an in to get him in contact with her.

Ren agreed to help her old boss show a wealthy hotshot some properties, which in turn will help her pay some of the mountain of debt she's been left with since her husband died in an avalanche. While she wants to be independent and be able to care for her infant daughter, she's starting to drown. But she soon has a benefactor, in the way of her potential real estate client...a man who also happens to have been best friends with her husband. She soon finds the man all too willing to throw money at her to help her out, but also step in and play at being a family with her.

I really wanted to like the characters more, given what each of them had lived through, but I found myself not very sympathetic to either of them, but instead frustrated. Ren not only had to deal with the death of her husband, but also knowing she was pregnant and alone with a mountain of debt. I'd almost start feeling for her when all of a sudden something would come out of her mouth that would turn me off (I felt a little sympathy for my husband with the lashing he's gotten with my sharp tongue after reading some of Ren's comebacks!).

Then there was Cole. He was riddled with guilt over the accident, because if he hadn't been delayed he may have been able to save his brother and his best friend. Get that. But suddenly he thinks throwing money at the situation is going to fix it. And when that doesn't quite cut it, he's going to take Danny's place in the little family he knew nothing about. Cole had good intentions, but he was doing everything for the wrong reasons, which made me mad because I kept thinking (to myself) that Ren has been through enough.

Cole and Ren needed time away from each other to realize that both of them, while not at fault for the accident that took their loved ones, had a hand in what had lead to their unhappiness and needed to decide what to do to change it.